In the spring of 1967, The Beatles released their eighth album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, unofficially kicking off what would later be known as the “Summer of Love.” The hippie movement, fueled by psychedelics and the slogan, “Make love, not war,” became the dominant youth movement in the Western world.
The Beatles, now wearing mustaches and bright clothing, spent 400 hours in the studio crafting an album that was their most musically and thematically complex. Because they didn’t have to worry about reproducing it for the stage, it incorporated a wide variety of influences including vaudeville, music hall, avant-garde orchestrations, Western classical, and Indian music.
Jimi Hendrix covered ‘Sgt. Pepper’ a few days after its release
The band had quietly quit touring, so the album was infused with crowd noise as if the listener were hearing the fictional Pepper band play live. On June 4, 1967, Beatles Paul McCartney and George Harrison were treated to a live performance of their new album when Jimi Hendrix took the stage at the Saville Theatre in London. He opened the show with the title track of the revolutionary new album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
It was amazing that Hendrix was able to put together a cover in such a short amount of time. It’s believed that he played a recording of the song to his band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, backstage, and their first proper performance was on stage that night. The band’s version is a stripped-down interpretation with Hendrix’s hallmark blistering guitar.
Paul McCartney, who wrote the song, took Hendrix’s performance as a major compliment. “Jimi was a sweetie, a very nice guy. I remember him opening at the Saville on a Sunday night, 4 June 1967,” McCartney wrote in his 1998 book, Many Years from Now. “Jimi opened, the curtains flew back, and he came walking forward, playing ‘Sgt Pepper’, and it had only been released on the Thursday so that was like the ultimate compliment.”
The moment was dramatized in the 2013 biopic, Jimi: All Is by My Side, starring Andre 3000.
Now, for a bit of controversy…
A little bit of sleuthing shows that, although Sgt. Pepper was originally scheduled to be released on June 1, 1967, it was rush-released at the last minute on May 26 in the U.K. If Hendrix and his band were able to pick up an early copy, then they would have had a few more days to work on their cover. Still, it’s wonderful that The Jimi Hendrix Experience was part of a massive cultural moment with the release of Pepper, being one of the first major bands to play the material live. Plus, somebody had to; The Beatles weren’t going to do it.
In 2023, Legacy Recordings released The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Hollywood Bowl August 18, 1967, where the band performed “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” as well. On that date, Hendrix was opening for The Mamas & The Papas, who would then incorporate the song into their sets. Unfortunately, the world never got to see The Beatles perform the song live, but McCartney has made it a regular part of his live sets since 1989.
